Impacted crop or crop injuries? Not eating for 3 weeks.

[CanadaEh]

We have had bobcat attack killing 11 out of 12 our chickens, and messing up one that I thought would not make it, but now almost 3 weeks later she is still alive and doing better in a cardboard box in the garage, but not eating at all.

Initially she was not able to stand on her feet, and her neck was sitting back and to the side. I had also have to remove some leaves from her mouth and there was some sticky liquid too. No blood or any visible injuries. Now almost 3 weeks later she is still alive and able to stand/walk, but not very steady and is still acting weird. She drinks water when offered in a nipple cup right to her beak. But after drinking a bit she will either try to clean her beak off the bedding, or a few times I saw her making some weird neck or yawning movements. Some times she would refuse to drink or to drink sugar water. And she is not eating at all.

Should I suspect an impacted crop and start to mess with olive oil and massaging her neck (and potentially making it worse if there is some injury in the process of healing)? For how long can a chicken survive on water only?

 

[Kiki]

Three weeks without food can't possibly be good.
Have you thought about ending her suffering?

 

[CanadaEh]

Have you thought about ending her suffering?

initially yes, but not after she has improved

 

[Eggcessive]

It sounds more like neurological symptoms including wry neck possibly from the attack. After this amount of time, she would need to be given liquids first, and then fed with a feeding tube to try and catch up. But have you considered that she might not recover or be suffering? Vitamin E along with a bit of selenium, found in cooked egg, tuna, or sunflower seed can be helpful with neurological symptoms. Would you like to learn tube feeding or have you thought about putting her down?

 

[Eggcessive]

Has she had any food in 3 weeks? If she has not eaten, she needs to have plenty of water before trying food. I would offer chicken feed made very wet with water, and see if she will take it in a small bowl.

 

[CanadaEh]

why do you think I should force feed her if she refuses food and only drinks some water? Why can't it be impacted crop (especially given the amount of dead leaves i pulled from her mouth) or crop injury that makes chicken think it is better not to it?

 

[MGG]

You can put an egg yolk in her water for a bit of protein

 

[Kiki]

If she's not eating and you don't force feed her she will die. If she's not already slowly dying now from not getting any nutrition.


Maybe we are misunderstanding something here.

 

[Eggcessive]

What does her crop feel like—empty and flat, full and hard, doughy, or puffy? If she has not eaten in 3 weeks, she probably would not have food in her crop, and would be starving. If she has food in there, she probably has sour crop. I didn’t say to force feed her, since that can be dangerous. But if her crop is emptying, she needs tube feeding to keep her alive. I am leaving, but will check back in tonight.

 

[CanadaEh]

I could not find the crop (so I assume it is empty, although I don't know how it supposed to look it on feel like on a live chicken). So it is not an impacted crop. But I felt her neck is having really sharp s turn to one side. Is it what is called wry neck? I have not tried to stretch it, but I have seen her stretching it when making "yawning" impressions lately.